Hickory for Cabinet doors

[Gene Zimmerman]

I am in the process of refacing our kitchen cabinets, and ultimately the entire house (bathrooms, utility, etc). I am going to use hickory, and understand what I am up against regarding the cabinet door rails and stiles. After going to the lumber yard, I am dissapointed regarding the lack of "stunningness" of hickory 1/4" plywood for the reface of the cabinets themselves and the panels for the doors. The plywood I saw did not have the dramatic color variations/streaks that hickory lumber has. I can live with the ply as is for the cabinet reface, but do wish to have the stuningness as part of the cabinet doors. I do not have the capability to make large panels out of lumber, and am wondering if there are options i'm not thinking about/dont know about. Are lumber panels available somewhere without breaking the bank? different grade of plywood??? other options??
ps. i have gotten a lot of good feedback from participants of this forum regarding working with and refinishing my project, and for that i am very thankful. gz

[John Thompson]

I have little experience with ply in general as I do solid wood but... I do buy a sheet of two of hickory ply on occasion for drawer bottoms and dust backs on chest. My experience is I have found it varied when I looked depending on basically who manufactured and when. I have seen variances bewteen the same manufacturer (Columbia which is made in USA and Canada) that varied having looked at various times after a new shipment arrived.

Maybe someone else that uses it more often can be more helpful...

[J.R. Rutter]

I've only done a few hickory jobs. The ply faces vary quite a bit. You might do some calling around, or get some paper backed veneer ($$$). We usually have solid wood panels specified by the customer, even for flat panel "shaker", so we can control the look.

[Bryan Berguson]

Gene,

Some of the most beautiful hickory is the rustic grade with all the knot holes and color variations. Unfortunately, they don't make hickory sheet goods with that grade and end up with very plain/dull plywood.

With that said, have you ever combined hickory and cherry in the same project? I built a bathroom suite (vanity, light panel, and medicine cabinet) with hickory for rails and stiles and cherry plywood for large panels. The colors are stunning together. I decided on this combination because we have hickory floors throughout the house and cherry cabinets in the kitchen. They looked good together so I figured I'd give it a try.

An oil finish is a must to get the color out. I also built some play cabinets for my kids with the combination but used a water based finish because of time constraints. It's very dull and unappealing and I won't make that mistake again.

Hope this helps.

Bryan

[Chip Lindley]

Finding hickory veneer might yield you the results you wish, rather than suffering with available bland plywood! IMO, ply for a refacing job leaves exposed edges which give a *quick 'n' dirty* look to the job. You will live with your own cabinet job each and every day you own your home. Enjoy your kitchen rather than suffer regret.

I enjoy making my own veneer for refacing jobs, resawing stock about 3/32" thick, ripped to exact width for each FF part. The rough veneer is then sanded to consistent thickness. For years I used a tapered disc in my tablesaw. It Works! In this manner, the FFs match the doors exactly, from the same batch of lumber. Every part of the old FFs are covered with new wood (even inside opening of doors. Two coats of solvent-based contact cement were used with excellent adhesion results. When the veneer joints are lightly sanded, it is only discerned as veneer by very close scrutiny. This process is more involved, but yields very nice results. It is well suited to those who cannot afford to *gut* their whole kitchen for new cabinetry. And, the kitchen remains usable during the process.

During these lean times, I have no doubt small cabinet shops would be more than happy to turn out a set of hickory panels to your specification. If you have the capacity to make your rails and stiles, so much the better. Otherwise, there are many shops who would make complete doors to your specification, finished or raw.